In Book 6, Herodotus continues his account of the Persian suppression of the Ionian revolt, which included the destruction of Miletus, the home city of Aristagoras and Histiaeus, the chief instigators of the rebellion. After the revolt is quashed, Darius launches an invasion of mainland Greece from the north to punish Athens and Eretria for their support of the Ionians. The campaign fails when the Persian fleet is wrecked off the coast near Mount Athos. Two years later, the Persians send a fleet across the Aegean Sea to subdue the Greek islands and attack Athens and Eretria. This invasion culminates in the Athenian defeat of the Persians at Marathon in 490 BCE.

After Aristagoras fled to Thrace, Histiaeus, the tyrant of Miletus, arrived in Sardis. Darius gave him permission to leave Susa in order to suppress the Ionian revolt; in Sardis, however, the Persian governor Artaphernes accused Histiaeus of having incited Aristagoras to rebel. Alarmed, Histiaeus crossed over to Chios that night, where he was taken prisoner by the Chians, who assumed he was involved in a Persian plot against them. Histiaeus convinced the Chians of his hostility towards Darius and told them he had urged Aristagoras to revolt because the Persians were intending to transfer the populations of Ionia and Phoenicia to each other’s lands—a false but effective

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